I saw a client recently who had been involved in a car accident, let’s call him Chris. He has autism and anxiety. Chris had worked his way to his green Ps through sheer determination. His mum doesn’t drive, so he’d arranged over 100 standard driving lessons himself to learn to drive and gain his 100 hours. He had no input from any health professionals, and didn’t know that he should. He said he managed to pass his practical driving test on the first go and didn’t think he had any challenges with his driving, although noted often people beeped at him for driving too slowly.
Chris said at the time of the accident, he was a delivery driver and felt really stressed by needing to make the delivery within a set timeframe and his workplace tracking his location. He said he was driving at night, stressed about making the delivery, trying to navigate to the location using maps; and whilst driving up a hill, he ran into the back of another car. Chris said he’d been anxious, overwhelmed and distracted.
Chris’s story had me thinking… Could this have been prevented if he had been referred to a driver trained OT earlier in his driving journey? Of course, we all get stressed, anxious and overwhelmed sometimes. Mistakes do happen. But if Chris had been involved in a Potential to Drive assessment before learning to drive, he could have been taught strategies to reduce this risk. He could have been taught strategies to recognise when he’s starting to feel overwhelmed, and how to manage it when he is. He could have been taught critical items to look out for and how to prioritise these. He could have been taught planning, problem solving, and judgement skills in a safe space, so that maybe navigating to a new place wouldn’t have been as stressful.
In the potential to drive approach, we explore a person’s individual needs and create a specialized driver training plan which can include therapy, specialized lessons, and home practice to help Learner drivers get on the road safely.
If you or someone you know comes to mind when reading this, please reach out to Driving Well team and we can chat through the process.
